I am slowly trying out new trouser patterns. Several of these have been from Style Arc, with rather mixed results. Style Arc patterns are known for their sparse instructions, contemporary designs and superb drafting. All true. Style Arc is a trio of three terrific women from Melbourne. I’ve been to their offices twice via the Frocktails shopping tours and would like to support them.

I bought the Fifi trousers hoping it would be a blend of easy to make and wear trousers, with pockets. As it turns out, they fit the more relaxed edge of the Kibbe Classic, it has a yoke, slanted front pockets, clean lines. Yay! As an added bonus, these are trousers I can wear for work in my slightly increasing small business.

Image from Style Arc website

I checked the finished measurements against me, everything matched up OK (ish). I decided to just make the three quarter length. As always, the drafting was spot on. The waist elastic instruction was to cut the waist measurement, but neglected to suggest subtracting the front panel length. Fortunately I realised in time.

The pocket gapes a bit and shows the lining fabric.

The elastic waist gives a rather square shape. As it will be covered by a shirt, that is OK. I think it is time to accept that I will always need a zip. This is the waist at the back.

There is just enough stretch in the waistband to squeeze past my hips and bottom. I liked the nice deep hem I got when I chose the right length for me. This was accidental, but something to remember.

The details:

Pattern – Fifi trousers – Style Arc $5.00 (on sale)

Fabric – 1.6m of navy blue lightweight denim with minimal stretch, from stash, uncertain origin. Pocket lining was cut from the scraps of my husband’s waistcoat lining. No idea how much either fabric was.

Elastic – also from stash, but recent. I think it was $1.50 per metre and I used around 70cm. $1.00

Interfacing – I used sew in woven interfacing which is quite firm. It was leftover from a certain dress made for my daughter. I originally bought 2 metres x 120cm and used almost 30cm. There is a lot of this stuff left!

Total in money – $6.50

Do it again? Very likely. With alterations to the pocket bag, I’ll connect it to the centre front seam and maybe consider a centre front zip. A zip opening would give extra space and mean that I could reduce the elastic to the back waist only.